Hannah Georgas – For Evelyn (2016)
When Hannah Georgas released her debut EP, The Beat Stuff, in 2008, her pop tendencies were subtle and washed by folk instrumentation. But they were there, infusing Georgas’ lyrics about heartbreak...
View ArticleCash Cash – Blood, Sweat & 3 Years (2016)
Blood, Sweat & 3 Years, the big-label debut from electronic production trio Cash Cash, is a celebration of the many facets of dance in the 2010s EDM era, from trap to tropical and everything in...
View ArticlePuro Instinct – Autodrama (2016)
Hazy electro-pop had longer legs than might have been expected when the style drifted into listeners’ ears in the late 2000s, so much so that the 5-year gap between Puro Instinct‘s debut Headbangers in...
View ArticlePhonothek – Lost in Fog (2016)
Since 2013, Simon Heath has been releasing albums from an ever increasing roster of dark ambient artists. He jump-started the Cryo Chamber label with his two main projects Atrium Carceri and Sabled...
View ArticleTwin River – Passing Shade (2016)
When Twin River set about writing its sophomore album, Passing Shade, the members were separated by nearly 4,000 km, as singer-guitarist Courtney Ewan was living in Montreal while collaborator Andy...
View ArticleDelorean – Muzik (2016)
Comparisons to Cut Copy, Hot Chip, and pretty much the entire DFA lineup have always been inevitable for the Barcelona-based quartet known as Delorean. The semblance has never been stronger than on the...
View ArticleNite Jewel – Liquid Cool (2016)
It could be easy to forget that Nite Jewel‘s Ramona Gonzalez was at the forefront of some of the sounds that dominated the 2010s. Dreamy electro- pop tinged with R&B exploded during the four years...
View ArticleMick Harvey – Delirium Tremens (2016)
In 2014, Mute celebrated the 20th anniversary of Mick Harvey’s Serge Gainsbourg project Intoxicated Man, along with its 1997 companion, Pink Elephants. They were groundbreaking. He was the first to...
View ArticleDON’T – Fever Dreams (2016)
DON’T frontwoman Jenny Connors has always had an awesome voice. But on the band’s sophomore album, Fever Dreams, her vocals are particularly boss, striking the exact midpoint between Courtney Love’s...
View ArticleVatican Shadow – Media in the Service of Terror (2016)
Dominick Fernow, the musician behind Prurient and a whole host of other noise and electronic projects, has insisted that art should be about asking questions, not necessarily finding answers, and...
View ArticleThe Mystery Lights – The Mystery Lights (2016)
West Coast natives Mike Brandon and Luis “L.A.” Solano have been tweaking their version of fuzz-toned garage and psychedelia since their high-school days in Salinas, California. Over the years, the...
View ArticlePinkshinyultrablast – Grandfeathered [Japan Edition] (2016)
Russian shoegaze band Pinkshinyultrablast didn’t waste time working on their second album, Grandfeathered, which arrived a year after their 2015 debut, Everything Else Matters. Within that brief time...
View ArticleAnthony D’Amato – Cold Snap (2016)
Singer and songwriter Anthony D’Amato sounds like a folkie at heart on his second album for New West, 2016’s Cold Snap. But he has just enough in the way of rock & roll instincts to promise to give...
View ArticleVA – Sherwood at the Controls, Volume 2: 1985-1990 (2016)
Four primary factors distinguish Adrian Sherwood‘s earlier productions and remixes, anthologized on Sherwood at the Controls, Volume 1: 1979-1984, from the later work gathered here. The September 1983...
View ArticleLowly – Sink Way Into Me EP (2015)
Having announced themselves with the dazzling “Daydreamers”, their Sink Way Into Me EP confirms that Lowly have one of the most ironic names ever. A more accurate descriptor is to be found in the band...
View ArticleHot Hot Heat – Hot Hot Heat (2016)
In the mid-2000s, while most of its fellow post- punk revival acts were glooming out to Joy Division riffs and Gang of Four beats, Hot Hot Heat was ready to party. That was the Canadian foursome’s...
View ArticleThe Explorers Club – Together (2016)
Debuting in 2008 with an album of original material whose songs and production meticulously modeled the early Beach Boys, The Explorers Club continue to shift slightly forward in time with their third...
View ArticleRiver Tiber – Indigo (2016)
River Tiber is Tommy Paxton-Beesley, Toronto’s next-up triple-threat. The alt-R&B producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist is known for creating much of his music on his own, but his debut...
View ArticleChorusgirl – Chorusgirl (2015)
There’s no denying that a lot of Chorusgirl‘s aesthetic sounds like exactly the sort of thing you’d find on the Fortuna POP! label. From the jangly guitars to breezy rhythms, they make tunes that lurch...
View ArticleBlood Orange – Freetown Sound (2016)
Blood Orange’s debut, Coastal Grooves, stuttered, it was with Cupid Deluxe that it finally became clear that Hynes was exactly where he should be. Gone was the pretension, replaced by buckets of cool...
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